


In a Name

by avanti_90



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Quadruple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-27
Updated: 2012-08-27
Packaged: 2017-11-13 00:39:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/497454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avanti_90/pseuds/avanti_90
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>And so it was considered a thing of great importance when the third son of the King was handed to his mother, and Queen Indis whispered on her first sight of the golden-haired child: Ingoldo.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	In a Name

**Author's Note:**

> Arafinwë and Ingoldo are both names of Finarfin, the third son of Finwë and later King of the Noldor who remained in Aman.

Among the Noldor the names given by mothers are held in high regard, for in them there is often found an insight into the deepest nature of the soul, or, in rare cases, even into the future. And so it was considered a thing of great importance when the third son of the King was handed to his mother, and Queen Indis whispered on her first sight of the golden-haired child: _Ingoldo._

Ingoldo: the Noldo. Yet as the years passed and the child grew, many among his father’s people whispered that the name was ill-chosen. He preferred the fine crafts of words and song to those of metal or stone, and sought no eminence, keeping apart from the intrigues of his father’s court. In his youth he spent long years with his mother's kin in study and contemplation, or with the simple people of the coast, sailing with their fishermen and dancing on the jeweled sands.

“You named me wrongly, mother,” he often said in jest. “My brothers are masters of craft and lore; I look like a Vanya and talk like a Teler. For what am I the Noldo?”

Indis had looked at her son with grief in her eyes, and said nothing. He had not understood, and so in time he had come to prefer his father-name. _Arafinwë_ , the noble: easier to understand and held by most to be true, if not by his contemptuous half-brother.

But now that name sticks in his throat. What nobility did he show in the square of Tirion, when all his words and pleas had failed to move even one, when his own children had left his side? What nobility looked down at the blood of his kindred staining sands of pearl, and walked on, only to turn back in the end, leaving his kin and his children to darkness and death?

Now he stands in the lamp-lit square beneath a wilting tree, and places upon his head a crown that he has never learned to wear. In the distance he hears the sounds of weeping, and he looks out upon the bowed remnant of a once proud people, their eyes filled with fear and despair, the light of their souls now tainted with darkness.

And at long last he understands that his mother was right. The Noldor are flawed, broken and lost, and so is he.

He is Ingoldo, the king.

**Author's Note:**

> _1\. The form Ingoldo may be noted: it is a form of Noldo with syllabic n, and being in full and more dignified form is more or less equivalent to 'the Noldo, one eminent in the kindred'. It was the mother-name of Arafinwe [Finarfin], and like the name Arakano 'high chieftain' that Indis gave to Nolofinwe [Fingolfin] was held to be 'prophetic'._
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> _2\. As with Feanor, Finwe later added prefixes to their name: the elder he called Nolofinwe, and the younger Arafinwe. Nolo was the stem of words referring to wisdom, and Ara, ar- a prefixed form of the stem Ara- 'noble'._
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> _\- The Peoples of Middle-Earth_


End file.
